Taskbar access to MS-DOS menu


When you open an MS-DOS window under Windows 95, a DOS icon appears in the upper-left corner of the window. Click the icon, and a menu of commands appears.
Did you know that all these commands are accessible from the Taskbar as well? Right-click the MS-DOS item there, and the same menu appears.

Copy and paste in MS-DOS


When you open an MS-DOS window under Windows 95, a DOS icon appears in the upper-left corner of the window. Click the icon, and a menu of commands appears.
Did you know that all these commands are accessible from the Taskbar as well? Right-click the MS-DOS item there, and the same menu appears.

Dial-up password


If Windows 95 won't remember your dial-up password, even though you've checked the "Save password" option, Microsoft offers a file that may be able to help. (Apparently, the Windows 95 Service Pack 1 has a bug that does something to the password cache.) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/passwd.htm and download mspwlupd2.exe. Once it's on your system, double-click this file to install the program files.

Print directory listings Part 1


Want to print a directory (folder) listing in Windows 95? If you have a few minutes to set up a batch file and do a little Registry tweaking, you can print a folder listing with ease.
Open Notepad and create a batch file by typing the following lines (substitute your printer port for LPT1, if necessary):
CD %1 DIR >LPT1
Name the file PRINTDIR.BAT, save it in your Windows\Command folder (assuming that C:\Windows is your Windows 95 directory), and close Notepad.
In an Explorer or My Computer window, locate the batch file you just created, right-mouse click it and choose Properties. Select the Program tab, select Minimized under Run, and select the Close on exit option. Click OK.
In our next tip, we'll show you how to edit the Registry so that this batch file runs whenever you right-mouse click a folder and choose Print.

Print directory listings Part 2


You can print a Windows 95 directory listing by setting up a batch file and then editing the Registry. In our last tip, we showed you how to create the batch file: In Notepad, type the following lines:
CD %1 DIR >LPT1
then save the file as PRINTDIR.BAT in the C:\Windows\ Command folder. In the file's Properties dialog box, set the file to run minimized and to close on exit.
The rest of this technique involves editing the Registry. Open the Registry Editor and navigate your way to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell. Right-mouse click shell, choose New, and then select Key. Name the new key "Print" (no quotes). Right-mouse click the new key, select New and then Key; and this time, name the key "command" (again, no quotes).
In the right pane, right-mouse click (Default), choose Modify, and in the Edit String dialog box, type your batch file's path (c:\windows\command\printdir.bat) on the Value data line.
That's it--close the Registry Editor. To test out your handywork, right- mouse click any folder, choose Print, and race to the printer!

Window arranging options


Right-mouse click any blank area of the Taskbar and you can choose from three window-arranging options: Cascade, Tile Vertically, or Tile Horizontally. (Note: you must have at least one window open to be able to access these choices.)
Cascade arranges your open windows in a waterfall formation, with all the title bars visible (try it to see what we mean). The only problem with this arrangement is that when you select a window toward the back of the pile, it covers up the title bars of those in the front. Then you have to rely on window edges to figure out which window is which. Them's the breaks. But at least you get to work in close-to-full-sized windows.
If you don't mind smaller windows, the two tile options display each open window (that isn't minimized) side by side. Choose Tile Horizontally to display open windows from left to right, one on top of the other; or choose Tile Vertically for up-and-down windows. (Four or more windows will give a tiled effect with either command.) The only downside to tiling--other than small windows--is that certain dialog boxes take up more than their fair share of space.
To switch back to the previous window arrangement, right-mouse click the Taskbar and select the Undo command. (Tip: If you've chosen both tiling options in a row, the easiest way to get those windows back to a reasonable size, other than sizing them by hand, is to choose Cascade.)


Create popup menu from My Computer


Tired of using the Start menu to get everywhere? Add a folder to the My Computer right-mouse menu and place all your favorite shortcuts inside. It's just another of the many ways you can set up quick access to where you want to be. (Note: This tip involves some detailed Registry editing, so we recommend backing up your Registry, or at least its HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT branch, before you begin.)
First, create a folder that holds all your favorite shortcuts. Or, if you have a particular folder in mind to which you'd like access from the My Computer menu, take note of its name and path.
Now for the Registry part. Open the Registry Editor--choose Start, Run, type regedit, and click OK--and navigate your way to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}. (Don't let all the numbers scare you--they're all in order, so just look for the onethat starts with "20D04FE0" and double-click it.) Inside, right- mouse click the shell key, choose New and then Key, and name the new key My Folder. With My Folder still selected, right-mouse click (Default) in the right pane, choose Modify, and in the resulting dialog box, type "&My Folder" (no quotes) on the Value data line. Click OK.
Right-mouse click the new My Folder key, choose New and then Key, and name the new key "Command" (again, no quotes). In the right pane, right- mouse click (Default) and choose Modify to bring up the Edit String dialog box. Type the following on the Value data line
C:\Windows\Explorer.exe C:\
followed by the path of the folder you'd like the My Folder item to point to. So, for example, if you had a Useful Shortcuts folder on the root directory of your hard drive, you'd type
C:\Windows\Explorer.exe C:\Useful Shortcuts
Click OK and close the Registry Editor. Click My Computer with the right-mouse button and select your new My Folder item (or whatever you've named it) to display its contents on screen.

More on updating the password cache


If you update your password file using mspwupd2 (Microsoft's Password Cache update), you need to delete your current Password Caches on your system. If you don't, Windows 95 may try to use some passwords that were perhaps corrupted by the update. To delete the corrupted password caches, find all PWL files on your system and delete those that are in the Windows folder. (You'll need to re-enter all of your passwords when Windows 95 needs them.)
Deleting these files can also solve delays that Windows 95 may exhibit when shutting down. For example, on a Pentium 200 with 64 MB Ram, Windows 95 was taking over 30 seconds to get to the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen. Deleting the corrupted password cache solved the problem; now the shut down screen appears within a couple of seconds.

Icon to restart Windows


In the past, we've shown you the trick to restarting Windows 95 without rebooting your entire system: Choose Shut Down in the Start menu, select Restart the computer?, then hold down Shift as you click Yes. Want an icon that does all this without ever setting foot in the Shut Down dialog box? Just set up a simple MS-DOS batch file and place its icon within arm's reach. From then on, restarting Windows 95 is just a double-click away.
Open Notepad and type the following:
@EXIT
Save the file anywhere you want with an appropriate name, such as RESTART.BAT, and close Notepad. Find the new file in Explorer and place a shortcut to it on the desktop (assuming you want to access this icon from the desktop). Close Explorer and rename the new shortcut.
Click the shortcut with the right mouse button, choose Properties, and on the Program tab, select the Close on Exit option. Click Advanced, select MS-DOS mode, and deselect Warn before entering MS-DOS mode. Click OK twice.
Ready to restart Windows 95? Double-click your new desktop icon!

TreeSize to view folder sizes


http://www.windows95.com/apps/disktools.html.
Wish you could see the amount of space individual folders, including all of their contents, take up on your hard drive? Explorer won't give you this information, but TreeSize (freeware) will. To download this handy utility, point your Web browser at the URL above and select TreeSize in the list. Using an unzipping utility, extract the contents of the file to your location of choice; then right-mouse click the TREESIZE.INF file and choose Install.
To open TreeSize, choose Start, Programs, TreeSize. Choose Select Directory under File, and navigate your way to the folder at the top of the hierarchy of folders you'd like to view. Click OK, and TreeSize creates the hierarchy, complete with sizes. As in Explorer, double-click any folder to display all the folders inside.
The icon row includes a number of sorting and viewing options. Choose to view the folders from largest to smallest, alphabetically, or using no sorting method. You can also select from five viewing options--bytes, allocated space, percent, wasted space (for more on wasted space, see the README.TXT file that comes with the program), or CD-ROM cluster size.
(Tip-in-a-tip: Right-mouse click a folder, select TreeSize, and the utility opens with the focus on that folder.)